Y’all know my love for the Target Dollar Spot runs deep and I always find several goodies for the holiday season there. I also love to find cheap things that I can transform as well. Just like my simple Target Dollar Spot Hack I did last year as well. So that’s when I stumbled upon these cute little wooden houses, I thought they would be perfect to turn into DIY Gingerbread Houses instead!
This was such a simple and easy DIY project and would be perfect to do with children as well!
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What You Will Need For DIY Gingerbread Houses:
- Wooden Houses (as stated above I got mine from the Target Dollar Spot, but you could easily find them at a craft store as well)
- Brown Paint (I used Craft Smart acrylic paint in golden brown)
- Puffy Paint (I used Tulip Puffy Dimensional Fabric Paint in white)
- Paintbrushes
- Fake Snow
Paint the Houses
The first thing you need to do to transform these houses into gingerbread houses is to of course paint them!
I just used the cheap acrylic paint and chose a color that I thought looked the most like a gingerbread color.
I linked it above for easy reference as well. It took me total of three coats, but it did not take me long at all because it dries fairly quickly.
Add The Puffy Paint
After my houses were completely dry, I added the puffy paint to them. Thank of it like you are icing a sugar cookie.
I went around and outlined the windows and added in a few drops like the snow was falling from them. I also did the same thing to the rooflines to the houses as well.
Dip Houses Into Fake Snow
Before I started adding the puffy paint to the houses, I added some fake snow into a shallow bowl. That way I could easily access the fake snow while my puffy paint was still wet.
I covered the whole rooftop with the puffy paint. I was using it kinda of like a glue for this part. Once I covered the roof, I dipped the house into a bowl full of the fake snow.
This way the wet paint secured the fake snow into place. I think it would be harder to add on if the paint was already drying so be sure to add the snow on as quickly as possible.
After adding all the fake snow to the houses, I set them up and let them dry overnight. I put the puffy paint on kind of thick, so I knew it would take a little extra time to thoroughly dry.
Conclusion
These DIY Gingerbread Houses were so much fun to make! It just took me like one afternoon to do them and now I have some more festive Christmas decor to style in my home.
The best part about it is that it was fairly inexpensive to do as well!
I ended up putting these gingerbread houses up on the open shelves in my guest bedroom. I think they add in just the right amount of Christmas flair!
If you end up doing this project, let me know how it turned out for you! I love doing easy and simple DIY projects like this. It definitely keeps my creative juices flowing!
Lovely craft! I love ginger bread house. Thank you for sharing.
Thank you. Glad you enjoyed it!
These houses are so cute & festive! That’s great you found them in the dollar section at Target & were able to turn them into gingerbread houses!
Thank you! I’m happy I found them there too!
The snow on your houses looks so real – I love it!
Thank you! That faux buffalo snow I use works wonders!
The snow on your houses looks so real – I love it!!
The snow on your houses looks so real – I love it!!!
These are adorable! Thank you for sharing the tutorial.
Awe thanks! So glad you enjoyed it!
I love these gingerbread houses, what a lovely craft idea for Christmas! x
Lucy | http://www.lucymary.co.uk
Thank you! It is the perfect Christmas craft!
This is such a cute christmas craft and you make it look so easy and effortless. Will try this soon! Thank you so much for the idea!
Thank you! It was very easy and effortless for sure!
This is such a cute christmas craft and you make it look so easy and effortless. Will try this soon! Thank you so much for the idea!
These are amazing and so festive! I absolutely love them!
Awe thanks my friend! So glad you enjoyed it!
Oo, I love these wooden houses! That fake snow is so festive. I would so make a whole run of these and give them as little gifts. 🙂
Thank you! They would be perfect little gifts!
Thank you! They would be perfect little gifts for sure!
Oh these are just adorable and look so cute on your shelf! You could totally make personalised ones of these! xxx
Thank you! And yes you definitely could do that as well!
I’ve always been put off crafts because I’m not the best at them, but these are so adorable for your shelves, desk, or as a Christmas decoration- and sound like a lot of fun to make as well 🙂 thank you for sharing x
Yes! This is the perfect easy Christmas craft! Anyone could totally do this!
I never build gingerbread houses. I always find them to be difficult or way too messy. I am also not very good at building them. This is a wonderful alternative and makes for much better decorating. I can even make them with the grandkids. Thanks you so much for sharing!
Yes this is definitely less messy than the actual gingerbread houses! I am so glad you enjoyed it!
These are so cute! We just did the ones you can eat in our home but I have never thought of making permanent ones. It looks like a simple and fun craft to do with the whole family.
Yes! It’s very fun and simple for sure!
What a lovely and relatively simple craft! I love the look of these cute houses and the fluffiness of the snow. Thanks for sharing!
Thank you so much! They were pretty simple to make too!
These are absolutely adorable! I need to find some houses and will definitely follow your tutorial, it was very clear, thank you x
Thank you! So glad you enjoyed the tutorial!
What a great craft! They look exactly as if you were making cookie gingerbread houses but aren’t wasting cookies. I will have to give this a try as I’m wanting to add more homemade decorations. I bet these would look great on the many bookshelves we have.
Thank you so much! They definitely would look perfect on some bookshelves for sure!
These look so cute – and so simple too!
Thank you so much! They are very simple and easy to make for sure!
This is such a cute idea! I totally love how they turned out, and it’s something I never ever would have thought of myself. Thanks for sharing!
Awe yay! I am so glad you enjoyed it!
These are just darling! I saw our Target has the little wood houses. Would love to try this!
Thanks for the inspiration as always.
Yes! You should get them and try this out! So glad you enjoyed it!
This is incredibly adorable! I am going to build a gingerbread house from real gingerbread cookie plates and I’m looking forward to it so much. This one looks way cuter though, since real cookies always break haha.
Lol yes it is so hard to build gingerbread houses from actual cookies!
Oh wow, these look beautiful! I never would have thought to make something like this, but I definitely need to give it a go xx
Hannah | https://luxuryblush.co.uk/
Thank you so much! You definitely should try it out!
Great idea! They look so cute and easy to make! Thank you for sharing this! The fake snow as well is so cool!
Thank you! I love that fake snow. So much fun for crafts!
They turned out so great and look amazing on your shelf! I spotted these at my target the other day and never would’ve thought about sprucing them up like this. love the idea!
Yes you should definitely spruce them up! It was so much fun!
Awww these are absolutely adorable! Definitely going to give these a go!
Thank you so much! You should give it a go for sure!
Love these houses!
Thanks! I love them too!
Oh, I love these! They’re SO cute and I love the idea of fake snow on top, I really want to make one now 😉 Thanks for sharing!
Sophie | http://www.loveandliterature.co.uk
Thank you so much Sophie. So glad you enjoyed it!
Thanks for sharing, this lovely craft idea, looks great to make and not that expensive 🙂
Thank you! It is a lot of fun to make and not hard at all!